hereby, HRW appeals to the honourable supreme court of India to review the sentence given to cine actor mr.sanjay dutt. He is charged under illegal possession of arms , the stand of prosecution is biased . the culprit cine actor kept the arms knowing fully well for what purpose it is being kept , he had had regular contacts with anti-national underworld elements. Still he is not charged under either TADA or MOCA WHY ? WHERE AS ORDINARY CRIMINALS WHO HAVE DONE LESSER QUANTUM OF CRIME THAN HIM ARE CHARGED WITH TADA & PUNISHED SEVERALLY. WHY THIS DOUBLE STANDARDS BY THE JUDICIARY ? HEREBY , hrw also appeals to honourable supreme court of india to make public the transcript of underworld don abu salem's polygraph test , did sanjay dutt had any links with abu salem or other anti national elements ? how many film stars , sportspersons & politicians have regular contacts with underworld elements more specifically dawood ibrahim & chota rajan and how many of them have attended parties hosted by them in gulf countries ?

Indian prisons are meant to be reforming schools for the prisoners. By the corrupt practices of the officials , the prisons have become factories turning out hardened criminals.

Say , a person was caught by police on suspicion of pick-pocketing. The police produce the accussed before the magistrate , in turn he remands him for judicial custody. Let us consider , The punishment for this offence pick-pocketing as per law is 6 months imprisonment. However the case drags on for 3 years , finally the court finds him guilty of offence & orders for 6 months imprisonment. Totally, the offender serves 42 months imprisonment sentence in practice. In some cases , the courts consider the time already spent by the accussed behind the bars while giving judgement. In this example , even if the offender is let free taking 6 months imprisonment sentence, the offender has been given excess sentence of 36-6=30 months.

Taking the same example further, say the court finds the accused as innocent, not guilty of crime & lets him free. However , the poor chap has suffered 36 months imprisonment for no fault of his.

As per law, no body not even the courts of law are legally empowered to punish anybody beyond the legal procedures , rules established. In this way, due to delay in our legal system , faulty bail procedures , thousands of under-trials are suffering in various prisons throught India. Arew not the courts which remanded those accused to judicial custody responsible for this illegal act of excessive punishment ? what punishment should be given to those judges ?

The bail procedure in India , is also faulty without considering quantum of offence & financial status of the accused. A person accused of stealing rs.100 has to provide bail surety bond of rs.5000 or personal surety by a wealthy person / government servant. The poor person having personal contacts , friendship with rich persons / government servants is quite remote , so he cann't secure bail on personal bond. The poor chap's family is not rich enough to spend rs.5000 surety amount. As a result, unable to secure bail the poor chap suffers in jail for years.

Say, a rich industrialist is accused of rs.20 crores tax evasion, he is let free on a personal bond of rs.1 lakh. Stamp paper scam kingpin karim lala telgi has swindled government to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees, only few cases are registered against him. That too in one out of those cases involving rs.45 lakh worth stamp sale , judge has given him rigorous imprisonment plus a fine of rs.50000.

Considering the above examples it is quite clear the bail amount, fine amount are peanuts for the rich just a fraction of quantum of their crime , while for the poor it is huge many times more than the quantum of their crime.. it is biased towards rich & mighty criminals. As a result poor always suffers in jail, while rich are out on bail.

Even within prisons , the number of prisoners per sq.ft area , no of doctors , hospital beds , medicines available, weight of food per day given to prisoners , are all less & much below the statuotary limits. The food , health care , living conditions of prisoners , under-trials are worse than pigs. The prison authorities are utterly corrupt, which has been brought into light again & again by the media. If a poor prisoner questions the illegal acts of the officials , he is subjected to 3rd degree torture , roughed up by rowdy prisoners on the instigation of the officials themselves. Many poor prisoners are suffering from health problems , many are dying due to lack of proper health care & food in the prisons.

Whereas , the rich & mighty prisoners , by payting bribe get non-veg , alchoholic drinks from outside restaurants daily. They even secure drugs . they get spacious VIP rooms , television , mobile phones. They easily get parole & easily gets admitted in outside hospitals & roam free , while on record they are in-patients in hospitals.

The law of limitation which stipulates time limits for filing various cases is also biased towards the government as a party & rich , mighty. For the purposes of evidences , filing of cases one needs various government records. The concerned officials don't provide those records for years unless bribed & sit over the files for years. Some times by making absurd , illogical file notings , rejects it back. There is no time limit for the performance of duties by public servants. When a commoner don't get relevant records , files , evidences in time , how can he file cases in time without those records , evidences ?

Nowadays , numerous cases of irregularities , charges of corruption against judges are coming to light. However , in such cases judges are asked to resign from service but no criminal prosecution against them is instituted , only in cases involving lower court judges it is done. When a case of irregularity by a judge in a specific present case comes , there are every possibility that in the past also he has committed the same in cases handled by him which has not come to light. In such instances , all the cases handled by that particular judge throught his career must be reviewed , but is not done why ? does not it amount to cover-ups ?

In many cases the higher courts have turned down the verdicts of the lower courts , let free the innocents , absolved innocents of charges & annulled death sentences when appeals came before them. However , in all such cases , the lower court judges must be punished for giving out wrong judgements, meating out injustice to innocents. Here a fact must be noted , only a fraction of cases goes in appeal to higher courts, as in majority of cases the poor people lack the financial might to make the appeal. The so-called free legal services authority pre-judges the cases before giving legal aid. As a result , many innocents poor people resign to their fates suffer injustice in courts of law , undergo imprisonment punishment , some times even death sentence. So , the urgent need of the hour is to incorporate jury system or some outside monitoring system to review cases as & when decided.

In many cases involving the rich & mighty like telgi , case proceedings are conducted in-camera in judge's chambers or proceedings are conducted through video conferencing . outside from public gaze. The tapes are not made public and the public cannï¿½t even ascertain the validity of tapes , whether it is edited , doctored .

One of the basic reasons for delayed justice & worse prison conditions in India , is low number of judges , police personnel , higher rate of case adjournments and finally low amount of financial grants made by the government to judicial department / police department. The government states that it doesn't have enough money to provide for judiciary & police. As a result, fundamental / human rights of innocent commoners are thwarted. The state governments & GOI , is one of either parties in 75% of cases before various courts in India, it is the biggest litigant & is influencing the judiciary by controlling the grants , recruitment to judiciary & by enticing some with post-retirement postings.

I am writing to express my concern regarding the case of assault upon journalists at the Cantonment Police Station in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh on 26 November 2007. I am informed that the assault upon the journalists was led by Mr. D. P. Singh, the Upper Nagar Magistrate of the district. I am informed that the Magistrate wearing a jogging pants armed with a stick was assaulting the journalists shouting at then that they must be given a lesson for spoiling his evening on 26 November.

As the head of the state you must be ashamed by the action of a senior officer of your administration, who, is paid from the state exchequer for maintaining law and order within your state. The presence of such officers must be a serious concern for you had your government been serious in maintaining law and order in the state. I wonder how your government can ensure the safety and protection of the life and property of your people if Magistrates like Mr. D. P. Singh are allowed to remain in office even after such serious incidents which you are sure been informed about much before this letter. I am informed that the incident was widely reported in the media on 27 November 2007.

I am also informed that Mr. Nimesh, a journalist working for Sahara Media has been seriously injured in the incident and is currently undergoing treatment. I am also informed that the Cantonment Police have also registered a false case against the injured journalists and also a passerby who was injured in the police assault. I am also informed that not only Mr. D. P. Singh, but other police officers, particularly Mr. Sansar Sigh, the Station Officer stationed at Cantonment Police Station and Mr. Indrajeet Chadurwedi, the Station House Officer of the same police station were leading the assault along with the Magistrate. I am also aware that there were several other police officers from the Provincial Armed Core involved in the incident.

I am concerned about the absence of action by your administration regarding this incident. When officers like those named above are entrusted responsible posts, how can your government control crime in the society and maintain law and order? I am aware that the Asian Human Rights Commission is also writing to the United Nations agencies calling for an intervention into this case.

I therefore urge you to immediately intervene in this case and take appropriate actions so that:

1) All officers named above are immediately suspended from the service
2) An independent inquiry is ordered into the incident
3) The statement of Mr. Nimesh, a victim in the incident is immediately recorded
4) A crime is registered under the relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code against the officers named above and other police officers involved in this incident and the accused prosecuted
5) Appropriate interim compensation is awarded to the injured in the incident
6) The false charge registered against the victims/injured in this case is immediately withdrawn

I hope that you will take appropriate actions in this case at the earliest.

Your’s sincerely,

NAGARAJ.M.R.

Dear Chief Minsiter,

INDIA: Please enquire about the death threats to Dr. lenin Raghuvanshi of the PVCHR

I am writing to express my concern regarding the case of Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi, the convener of a local human rights organisation based in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Dr. Lenin, as you might be aware, is the convener of the People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR). I am informed that at about 4:45pm, Indian Standard Time, Dr. Lenin started receiving anonymous calls on his mobile telephone threatening him that he will be shot dead and that fabricated cases would be registered against the staff of the PVCHR and that the PVCHR will be forced to close down since the PVCHR has been bringing shame to the state. It is unfortunate that you, as the Chief Minister of the state, have appeared on all major television channels alleging that the PVCHR and the AHRC has been reporting false cases from Uttar Pradesh just hours before Dr. Lenin started receiving anonymous threatening calls.

I am informed that the copies of the records like medical certificates of the victims of all the cases reported by the PVCHR from Uttar Pradesh has been also transferred to the AHRC office in Hong Kong for their verification and safe custody on a regular basis.

I am informed that the state administration in the recent past was in fact positively responding to all the cases reported by the PVCHR and the AHRC. I am also aware that, after the recent change in the state administration, in several cases the Chief Minister's office has directly intervened to resolve the issues of poor villagers whose cases were brought to the attention of your office by the PVCHR and the AHRC.

I hope that in this case too your office will positively respond, thereby taking all immediate precautions to ensure the safety of Dr. Lenin and the rest of the staff at the PVCHR. I am informed that the AHRC has already communicated this matter to the office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders calling for an intervention in this case.

I therefore urge you to take immediate steps through your office to ensure that:

1. A written complaint is recorded regarding the anonymous life threatening calls received by Dr. Lenin;

2. That the state administration will do everything legally possible to ensure the safety of the field activists of the PVCHR, and;

3. That the state administration will ensure that the work of the PVCHR in Uttar Pradesh state will continue unhindered.

I hope that you will take appropriate actions in this case at the earliest.